By Victor Ogiemwonyi
This (READ) is another of NGX’s gibberish statement that does not say anything.
- CORPORATE GOVERNANCE:
Corporate governance is not what you say, but what you do. If the board of the NGX insist that it has done the right thing, then let it agree to a forensic audit to dig into why they spent N6.52bn running the NGX in 2021, out of the N6.8bn they earned in that year.
One thing is clear from the desperate need to raise this money at this time. Something is been covered up.
Any experienced auditor, will tell you that when numbers like these …N6.8bn Rev Vs N6.52 Expenses…. are so close to the edge, there are deferred Expenses and liabilities that are hidden in those accounts. If they must raise money at all, let it be in 2025, to let these numbers rest properly.
Saying, that the board of NGX Group got approvals for all it is doing, and in line with existing Corporate Governance codes, is self-serving, just like their self-praise in the reports they sent to shareholders, until there is a closer look beyond the surface, to see the rubbish beneath the hood.
- VALUE OF SHARES AT LISTING:
They are forgetting that, market practitioners know and follow the market closely.
By the way, saying that the NGX shares were listed at N16.15, is to deny that the shares traded for N27.90 before it was delisted from NASD Securities Exchange, and re-listed on the NGX. So, what was put on the offer document at demutualization has become irrelevant.
- PROPOSED CAPITAL RAISE:
The reply by the NGX Group has said nothing about why the N35bn fund raise is necessary.
The statement said the group is raising the huge fund for business expansion, …to deepen investments into existing portfolio companies to ensure high and steady returns….
The only profitable company in their portfolio, is CSCS. Is the board saying it needs to take more money from shareholders to invest in CSCS, a company already owned by shareholders, to …….ensure high and steady returns…?
These guys, definitely have something up their sleeves that they are not telling us.
They are saying that raising such large amount to invest in CSCS? … is this their “curated strategy” to guarantee returns to shareholders.
Who told them shareholders want to invest in CSCS through them?
Note: The CSCS earns money from doing business with the NGX.
The larger question, is why are they diversifying from the Exchange Business?
Exchange Businesses are mostly profitable all over the world. Even our young FMDQ, their only competitor, is profitable.
Are they saying they have run out of ideas? It seems so, since the only experienced person in that executive management left. Everything seem to have left with him.
He was responsible for putting the top Technology we now have in the NGX in place.
Since he left with his transformation team, the NGX has not been the same.
Ogiemwonyi, a retired Investment Banker, writes from Ikoyi, Lagos.
